 "Narendra Modi, Bihar")
The agitation to demand a separate state of Jharkhand was gathering steam in 1991. Lalu Prasad, then 43 and chief minister, said it would be carved out over his dead body. A couple of days later, Prasad indulged in an antic whose symbolism renewed his love affair with the dispossessed but made the upper caste fume.
Prasad ordered the official helicopter be stationed at the site of the protests at Sindri in Dhanbad. Thousands had turned up to have a look at the helicopter by the time he'd reached the spot by road. Once there, Prasad told the crowd, in a reference to his predecessor, Jagannath Mishra of the Congress, that the helicopter had belonged to a Brahmin. Now, a Yadav, from a poor family like theirs, flew in it. "The crowd exulted as he flew away. But, in one stroke he also made the Brahmins of Bihar his shatru (enemy)," a retired bureaucrat, a Brahmin, recounts.
In later years, Prasad became less abrasive towards the upper castes. The civil servant, once part of the inner circle of Prasad, says the memory of that day in Sindri came back as he sat watching the 67-year-old Rashtriya Janata Dal chief speak at the Swabhiman Rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on August 30. "Laluji spoke the language of the 1990s. I was disgusted enough to turn off the TV barely five minutes into his speech," he says. Yadavs and Muslims aside, much of today's Patna - from bureaucrats to businessmen, academics to the salaried class and even Paswan rickshaw pullers - expresses similar disgust, although it's mostly directed at state CM Nitish Kumar for having aligned with Prasad. People say they fear a return of the lawless years of Yadav dominance. Meanwhile, the Yadavs, particularly youth, believe they have a shot at ruling Bihar after 10 long years. "The time has come for us to again walk with pride," Kamlesh Yadav, a 22-year-old taxi driver in Patna, says unabashedly.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strategist, who didn't want to be named, believes the Bihar elections would be a repeat of Haryana polls of 2014. There, the BJP's unprecedented victory was achieved with all other castes joining hands against the dominant Jats. In April this year, BJP President Amit Shah told the party national executive in Bengaluru that the party's campaign in Bihar should focus on the prospect of 'Jungle Raj, Part-II'.
But, step outside Patna and this 'Haryana model' stumbles in the face of the complex web of caste loyalties and affinities that vary from one village to another. The BJP, it would seem, launched its 'jungle raj' campaign too early. This gave Prasad enough time to blunt the attack, reach out to many of the 114 castes that comprise the Extremely Backwards or EBCs, as well as those among the 22 castes of mahadalits. If anything, the 'jungle raj' campaign has also helped the Yadav, both old and young, to get consolidated behind Prasad.
Post or pre-1990?
Both Kumar and Prasad are reminding people that it wasn't 'mangal raj' or peaceful rule of the Rajputs and Bhumihars that existed before 1990. Habibullah Ansari of Patna's AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies says the Yadavs, along with Paswans and Kurmis, are only the latest to join the list of dominant castes, which in large parts of Bihar are still led by Rajputs and Bhumihars. "People haven't forgotten the jungle raj of the Rajputs and Bhumihars in the pre-1990 Bihar," he says.
The entry of Yadavs into the lower bureaucracy, particularly the police, and their political representation from the panchayat to Lok Sabha increased during the 1990 to 2005 period. While specific caste-based data is unavailable, Yadav share in landholdings also increased as the upper castes migrated. Even so, half the arable land is still owned by upper castes. About 82 per cent of holdings are less than a hectare each, and the lower castes, Yadavs included, own these plots. Then, there is a history of the Yadav leadership of the radical left fighting for the Dalits in the naxal belt. "Yadav dominance is over-emphasised. Nitish Kumar broke the backward caste unity to help his political career, and this trend also helped the upper castes. Now, it's the Yadavs that will save him from falling into political oblivion," Sandeep Rai, a social worker, says. Rai, a Yadav himself, is hopeful that the 2015 election will revive the process of social empowerment, somewhat stalled in the JD (U)-BJP years when upper castes returned to dominate the levers of power with greater gusto. The BJP, meanwhile, is also fighting discontent from within, while Prasad has been busy meeting EBC and Dalit caste leaders. It is possible that BJP allies like central minister Upendra Kushwaha and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi might not be able to transfer the votes of their communities to upper-caste BJP candidates. Muslims are also behind Prasad. "We will vote for Nitish Kumar only because we owe a debt to Laluji," said Sajjad Ahmed, a Bhagalpur businessman.
Yadav supporters are also dismissive of the attack on Prasad over the beef controversy. "Laluji is known to talk anap sanap (rubbish). He shouldn't have said what he did about beef consumption but few in Bihar take what he says seriously," Rai says. Ishtiaque Ahmed, who works among the peasants in Jamui, terms it a non-issue.
"The pitiable condition of small farmers and lack of cow shelters makes it uneconomical to feed an unproductive cow," he says. Farmers don't sell their cows directly to butchers but to intermediaries, knowing fully well that it's either headed to a slaughterhouse or to Bangladesh.
A younger and idealist Prasad had stopped the 'rath yatra' of L K Advani in 1990. November 8, the day of the counting of votes, would provide the answer whether Prasad, 25 years later and under a cloud of corruption charges, would stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut.
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